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Chapter7CreativeandCriticalThinkinginSmallGroup.pptxCreative and Critical Thinking in the Small Group
Chapter 7
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
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What is Creative Thinking?
Enhancing Group Creativity
What Makes Thinking “Critical”?
Enhancing Critical Thinking in a Group
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
What is Creative Thinking
Problem solving involves two components: creative and critical thinking
Creative thinking encourages the use of hunch, intuition, insight, and fantasy to promote creativity
Group creativity involves:
Divergent Thinking
Convergent Thinking
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Divergent thinking defined: ideas should vary
Convergent thinking defined: ideas must come together
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What is Creative Thinking
Creative groups are diverse
Creative groups structure their discussions to enhance creative potential
A group’s climate contributes to creativity
A group’s creativity is impacted by the environment
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What is Creative Thinking
| Individual, Group, and Environmental Factors for Creativity | ||
| Members | Groups | Environment |
| Willing to communicate | Diverse knowledge | Place high value on creativity |
| Willing to violate norms | Overcomes norms that interfere with creativity | Give the group autonomy |
| Tolerant of ambiguity | Develops appropriate group climate | |
| Not afraid of rejection | ||
| Open to new ideas | ||
| Playful |
Table 7.1, Page 160
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Enhancing Group Creativity
Brainstorming can be used to foster creativity
Guidelines for brainstorm are important:
Develops rules for brainstorming
Presented with a problem
Members generate solutions without criticism
All suggestions are recorded to see
Ideas are evaluated at different meeting
Electronic brainstorming prevents individuals from censoring themselves
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Enhancing Group Creativity
Synectics stimulates creative thinking by using metaphors
The following questions help to trigger this process:
Change your perspective
Look for a comparison from another field
Suspend reality and use fantasy
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Synectics
Synectics defined: A procedure designed to stimulate creative thinking through use of metaphor and looking for similarities in different things
A variety of orientations can help trigger insights
Changing perspective
Looking for a direct comparison
Temporarily suspending reality
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Enhancing Group Creativity
Mind mapping jolts group members out of linear thought patterns
Mind mapping involves:
Facilitator places word at the center of a paper
Group members add phrases/ideas/concepts they associate with the original word
The final map looks like branches of a tree
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What Makes Thinking “Critical”?
The second aspect of problem solving is critical thinking
Critical thinking involves:
The use of evidence
The use of logical arguments
Critical thinkers analyze a problem thoroughly
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Enhancing Critical Thinking in a Group
The most important technique is attitude
Several attitudinal components are important:
Being open - minded, that is willing to consider new information even when they contradict previous beliefs
Skeptical individuals want to think for themselves and tend to ask probing questions
Critical thinking is an active process of testing information
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Having the Right Attitude
Open-minded defined: Being willing to consider new information and ideas, even if they contradict previous beliefs
Have a sense of “show me” skepticism that indicates members want to think for themselves
Skeptical decision makers ask probing questions, which are designed to help critical thinking by examining information and reasoning in more depth
Skeptical decision makers ask probing questions
Critical thinking is an active, rather than passive process of testing information
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Enhancing Critical Thinking in a Group
Groups must organize ideas in order to think critically about their problems, which requires members to:
Gather Information
Evaluate Information
Check for Errors in Reasoning
Avoiding Groupthink
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Enhancing Critical Thinking in a Group
Gathering Information
Assess Needs
Collect Resources
Direct observation
Reading
The Internet
Electronic Databases
Interviews
Other Sources
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Enhancing Critical Thinking in a Group
Evaluating Information
Determine the meaning of what is being said
Distinguish fact, opinion, and inference
Identify and clarify ambiguous terms
Determine source credibility
Assess accuracy of information
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A fact is a statement that can be proven true (or false) with some objective standard
The biology students are in Science Lab 3A.
This is a “provable” statement. It can be determined that there are people, who study biology, who are in a room that has scientific lab equipment for scientific laboratory work. The room number (3A or otherwise) can also be proven.
An inference is a statement that appears to be true based on previous experiences. The greater the body of experience, the more an inference appears to be a fact.
Biology class meets in Science Lab 3A.
This is probably true in most cases—the class is scheduled to meet in that room, and class is likely held there. There may also be occasions when the class is held outdoors or at another location.
An opinion is a statement that a person believes to be true but it cannot be measured against an objective standard
Science Lab 3A is too small for the biology class.
Science Lab 3A is well equipped for biology classes
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Enhancing Critical Thinking in a Group
Checking for Errors in Reasoning
Avoid fallacies, which are mistakes in reasoning
Overgeneralizing
Personal Attack
Confusing Causal Relationships
Either-Or Thinking
Incomplete Comparisons
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Fallacies defined: Mistakes in reasoning and faulty reasoning
Overgeneralizing
Overgeneralizing defined: A conclusion with insufficient supporting data
To decide whether a generalization is a valid conclusion or an overgeneralization, ask a few questions
How many cases is the conclusion based on?
Are there any exceptions to the conclusion?
What form of evidence is the source asking us to accept: personal or other forms?
Is the generalization expressed as probability or in “allness” terms?
Attacking a Person Instead of the Argument moves the focus from the issue to the speaker
Confusing Causal Relationships suggests that A necessarily causes B, but in reality A and B are relational not causal
Either-Or Thinking
Either-Or thinking defined: Asking members to choose between only two options as if no other choices existed
Incomplete Comparisons asks the audience to stretch a similarity too far
Comparisons and analogies help the audience to understand
Analogies: comparisons that help clarify ideas and issues
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Enhancing Critical Thinking in a Group
Avoiding Groupthink, which is a failure to critically think and leads to flawed decisions
Symptoms of Groupthink
Overestimation of Power
Closed-Minded
Pressure to Conform
Preventing Groupthink
Kick the problem around
Establish norms of critical evaluation
Leaders don’t state preferences
Prevent insulation
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Avoiding groupthink
Symptoms of groupthink
Group overestimates its power
Group becomes closed minded
Group members feel pressure to conform
Preventing groupthink
Encourage members to discuss the problem
Establish a norm of critical evaluation
Have a designated devil’s advocate
Devil’s advocate defined: a group member who formally is expected to challenge ideas to foster critical thinking
Prevent leaders of expressing their preferences early
Do not insulate the group from information
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Summary
What is Creative Thinking?
Enhancing Group Creativity
What Makes Thinking “Critical”?
Enhancing Critical Thinking in a Group
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
